Caltech Announces Watson Lecture 'Perseverance on Mars'

After eight years of development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Perseverance rover was successfully launched on its journey to Mars on July 30, 2020.

In this Watson Lecture, Farley will describe how this highly capable rover will investigate rocks deposited billions of years ago at the bottom of a large lake (long since disappeared), seeking evidence of possible martian life at that time. He will also look at how the rocks carefully collected by Perseverance during these explorations will provide the cargo for the first-ever effort to bring samples back to Earth from another planet.

The riskiest moments of the mission will occur on February 18, 2021, as the spacecraft penetrates the martian atmosphere and deposits Perseverance on the surface.

This Zoom webinar is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required. Register Now.

Each Watson Lecture will begin at 5 p.m. Pacific Time as a Zoom webinar with a live audience Q&A at the end. At 8 p.m. Pacific Time, the recorded lecture (without Q&A) will be posted on Caltech's YouTube channel.

Kenneth A. Farley is the W. M. Keck Foundation Professor of Geochemistry at Caltech.

Since 1922, The Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series has brought Caltech's most innovative scientific research to the public. The series is named for Earnest C. Watson, a professor of physics at Caltech from 1919 until 1959. Spotlighting a small selection of the pioneering research Caltech's faculty is currently conducting, the Watson Lectures are geared toward a general audience as part of the Institute's ongoing commitment to benefiting the local community through education and outreach. Through a gift from the estate of Richard C. Biedebach, the lecture series is able to highlight assistant professors' research each season.

Many past Watson Lectures are available in a playlist on YouTube.

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